Travelogue Pt. 10

The Travelogue series recounts a seventeen-day-long cross-country road trip I took at age 21 with two college friends. We started in Charlotte, NC, and ended up two weeks and 8,000 miles later in Los Angeles, CA. The following is taken verbatim from a handwritten journal I laboriously kept on the trip. Names have been changed, but the rest is absolute, 100%, unedited truth.

*****

June 11

In Seattle. Or more accurately a suburb called Port Orchard, WA.

Got up, in the tent, at 7. Jess had gotten up to milk the cow. Packed up. Ate breakfast with Jennifer, Andrew, and Kayla again. Oatmeal with chia and flax, bananas, honey dew, maple syrup. And coffee.

Left around 8:30. Knew it was going to be a super long drive. Stopped and got postcards.

Around 12 peed in this absurdly ghetto and gross bathroom stall. Probably never been cleaned. Had to go through Montana (Missoula) for a while. Stopped at an all-in-one stop for ice cream and postcards. They also had free popcorn. The preteen behind the counter couldn’t count out my 28 cent change. Gave me two dimes and a nickel instead of a quarter. Cut back into Idaho before Washington. I drove a big chunk through the mountains. It was a lot prettier than we were expecting until all the sudden after Spokane, it flattens out and there’s nothing, barely even farms. What I thought Kansas would look like but it was Washington. Stopped at Panera for dinner 7:30.

The trees here are incredible. Just giant and everywhere. Pines.

Got to the house. We’re staying with William and Alyssa and Alyssa’s brother Anthony. William’s sister Alexis was in the same program as Jess. They’re very young and work for YL. Alyssa also works as some sort of exercise therapist.

They were making fajitas for dinner so we hopped on that. Free Corona and lime which I tried for the first time and didn’t hate. Also tried Cholula on my fajitas which was phenomenal.

Remembered an episode in the car, a bad one. I had just switched on driving for Jess so she was in the backseat. She decided it was okay to open a beer from the river yesterday, which that alone pissed me off. Then it exploded because it’s been riding in the car so there was beer all over the backseat. Then she decided to hold it out the window so it wouldn’t fizz all over her as we’re going through a work zone, had the audacity to ask what was the issue and Sam actually told her it could get me in trouble. She laughs and says whoops. Still hasn’t apologized.